Down to Earth
by GreyPolarKitty
Summary: *SPOILERS* The Axolotl's method of punishment was admittedly stupid, and now the Pines family was stuck with a triangular psychopath once again. What's more, no one knows the full limitations and conditions added to Bill's incarnate form as part of his punishment. The younger twins are still dealing with the traumas of Weirdmageddon. Summary limit, rated T for themes and language.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: From the perspective of my buddies/proof readers, this author's note is gonna be kinda goofy. Bear, Gold, Alexis, y'all are seeing this WAY before I publish this. Thank y'all for helping me build some ideas and descriptions!

Everyone else who happens to stumble upon this madhouse, I hope you enjoy! There's a tumblr for a lot of the jokes in the rough drafts called downtoearthgf if you're interested.

There will be spoilers. I'll be putting trigger warnings at the beginning of each chapter when needed. Speaking of which… panic attack in this one.

And remember! REALITY IS AN ILLUSION, THE UNIVERSE IS A HOLOGRAM, BUY GOLD, BYYYYEEEE!

* * *

Ford woke up furious and confused. "Bring Bill back," the Axolotl said. "You're in charge of his punishment," the Axolotl said. All because he and his brother went off to the middle of the Arctic Ocean to investigate an anomaly. All they even found was a small, yellow stone at the bottom of the ocean.

He should've figured, that anomaly had only started a few days after Weirdmageddon.

As punishment for killing Time Baby, screwing with the dimensions with portals, and the general tomfoolery one would expect of him, Axolotl decided to put Bill under the watch of whatever poor bastard finds that stone. That among other things.

To make it as "fair" as he could hope, he decided to plop that pendant in the middle of the ocean, expecting it to take at least another 30 years or so before someone could find it, long enough to make Bill a new form.

 _But no,_ Ford seethed, _I just HAD to go in the middle of an ocean chasing oddities. Can't get rid of the damn creature._

The twins were coming back this summer. He had thought about putting this off as long as possible, but he couldn't think of a reasonable way to do so. There was no way Dipper and Mabel would be allowed back without Stan or Ford to watch them, and he couldn't just take off with Bill either way. Sure, there was definitely more people in Gravity Falls than people who can safely ride the Stan O' War II, but he could easily lose Bill while at sea, which was not a risk he was willing to take.

He'd have to settle with adjusting the Bill-proof barrier by switching up the placement of the ingredients and setting it up in a smaller area. If he can keep that triangular monstrosity in a small area, he can likely find excuses to keep people out of said area. Of course, he'd still have to watch him. One does not simply leave a psychopathic dream demon to his own devices. His study behind the vending machine would do just fine. Ford never left the Mystery Shack much anyways.

Ford finally snapped himself out of his mental cacophony of things that could go wrong and slunk out of his bed to get dressed.

Stanley was already up and had been waiting at the kitchen table. "Mornin' Poindexter! I made coffee!"

"Uh, what? Oh, coffee, yeah. Thank you, Stanley." He sat down at the other side of the table and began anxiously tapping at the edge of the mug. Stan wouldn't react well to being told that they'd have to harbor the same monster who had tried to ruin their family only a year before, but keeping another secret, especially about Bill, would cause more harm than good. He'd have to tell him, just not yet…

"Somethin' on your mind, Ford? You're coffee's gonna spill if ya keep tapping like that."

"Yes! Yes, I'm fine." He took a sip of the coffee and started tapping the table. "Actually, Stanley…"

"What'cha need?"

"Well, I… there's something I have to do today, and I'll tell you about it when I'm done." How in the hell was he going to explain this?

"Uh, Ford, you're kinda freaking me out."

"That's just it, you will freak out. I'm freaking out. But I need you to trust me, okay?"

Stanley gave him a flat expression. "So you have something to do that neither of us are gonna like, and you're not gonna tell me about it until it's done."

"Yes."

"But you want me to trust you, so you're telling me about it without telling me about it."

"Essentially, yes."

"Is it going to be dangerous or long lasting?"

"Dangerous? Maybe. Long lasting? Probably."

"Is it going to hurt the kids?"

"Not if what I have planned works."

Stanley took a long, dramatic sip at his coffee before giving his signature grin. "Bring it on."

* * *

The woods were just starting to warm up for the day. The birds were singing, the grass was covered in fresh dew, and the sun was shining through the canopy, leaving dapples of light and shadow scattered on the ground. Bill's statue stood half-buried under a beam of sunshine, covered in moss and small cracks. His arm was presented to shake hands. Just as expected.

As he got closer, Ford felt a tug from the pocket in his jacket. He reached in and pulled out the yellow stone. "The keystone," the Axolotl had called it. A few more steps and the stone slipped out of his grasp and went flying at the statue, absorbed on contact.

"Well, alright then."

Bill regained consciousness slowly, his statue softening into his incarnate form. The first thing he noticed was how _sore_ he was. His everything ached the same way Dipper's body did after not sleeping for an age and a half, only worse. He was stiff, heavy, and dizzy. His legs and feet were cold, wet, and completely immobile. Not a sensation he was a fan of. Not a sensation he even believed he could feel. He let out a soft, irritated groan. His glow was very faint.

His vision was heavily blurred, but he could make out the general shape of brown boots. Whatever was in front of him shifted downwards until he could see red, black, and tan.

"Bill, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"F… fuck you… Sixer…" He held up his hand as if to snap, but found that he was too stiff to do so.

"Language, Bill! Too weak to do anything?" Ford sneered. He wasn't a sadist by any means, but something about seeing a creature as awful as him so powerless was almost funny, if not pitiful.

The demon struggled and attempted to claw at the ground, but all he could do was paw at the grass, getting more frustrated each second.

"Do you need help? I can get-"

"I can… I can do it..! Back off!" He growled. But the harder he tried, the weaker he got and the more his limbs burned in protest. When he could no longer force himself to move, he began to panic. The sudden rush of horror wasn't enough to get him moving again, and his growls turned into whimpers.

As much as he hated him, Bill's freak out was starting to make Ford's chest ache. "Would you rather I leave you-"

"No!"

"... to get a spade, or dig you out with my hands?"

"Don't, don't leave me, don't, please don't, Sixer, Ford, I'll die, I'll die, I'll-"

 _He can't even think clearly. I'll have to calm him down first._

"-you can't, you can't, you can't, can't, can't, Ford please-"

"Bill."

"-please, please-"

"Bill, look at me. Look at my face."

"Ford?" The demon did as he was told.

"May I touch you?" What the hell kind of question was that?

"What?"

"May I touch you?"

"I think... yes. Yes." Ford reached for one of his tiny hands and gently held it in his fingers. This was weird, this was _definitely_ weird. But this method had worked numerous times on Dipper, according to the letters the twins had been sending.

"What's your name?" Again, what the hell kind of question was that?

"Bill Ci… Cipher."

"Do you know where you are?"

"... yes."

"Do you know what year it is?"

"No…"

"What color is your hat?"

"Black…"

"How are you feeling right now?"

"I… I think I'm fine. Yes. I'm fine. What was that? And let go of me."

"That was a panic attack." Ford stated flatly.

"Horrifying. Everything about right… right now makes me… I'm having sensations that... I don't want."

"Don't focus on that too much. Instead," Ford took off his jacket. "Start counting things. Trees, rocks, birds. Just stay focused on anything but the sensations."

Bill flinched when Stanford wrapped his jacket around him. "What are you..?"

"Giving you a reason to believe I'll come back and dig you out. Oh, and don't let any wildlife take it. I'll be _very_ upset."

The demon couldn't answer before his old partner took off, even if he wanted to.

* * *

In the time it had taken for Stanford to grab a small spade, a duffel bag, and a blanket and come back, Bill had passed out due to exhaustion. By this point, both of them had come to the conclusion that he was subject to some of the biological rules most tangible creatures were. He had woken up briefly three times while he was being dug out, and didn't say a word when Ford set him in the bag and draped the blanket over him.

 _I'm being cared for by a human. Stupid, gullible Sixer, no less._ He was humiliated. It was bad enough that he was basically made a pet as punishment, but it just _had_ to be Ford, and he just _had_ to come back in the least glamorous way possible. Fantastic.

He didn't say anything on the way to the Mystery Shack, nor did he speak when Ford had set the bag down to push the last piece of unicorn hair in place to trap him.

"You're awfully quiet. That's not like you."

"I hate this. All of this." He glared at Ford. "And what's up with the barrier? It's not like I can do anything right now."

"Would _you_ trust you?"

Bill gave a small chuckle. "Fuck no."

"Language!"

* * *

It was around 3 PM when Stanford had finished explaining to his twin about the nonsense that's been happening. The dream, Bill's punishment, the flawed system to determine who carried it out, and Bill's apparent inability to do much of anything besides talk shit and maybe scream at pitches humans can't hear.

"I can't believe this…"

"Now, Stanley-"

"You turned a formerly god-like demon into a _pet_? That's hysterical! Awful, but hysterical." Stan gave his brother a playful punch in the shoulder.

"You're… not angry?" Ford's eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, you bet I am. But at least you told me. The real question is, what do we tell the kids if they go off lookin' for his statue? And how do we keep them out of your study?"

"I don't think we can. They found out about him before, they'll find out again…" Ford's mouth puckered in the way Pines usually do when they're planning something. "He's weak now, but he could just be weak because he's only just returned. Would it be safer to let them figure it out or just tell them?"

Stanley grabbed his twin by the shoulders. "The last time I waited around for those kids to just figure something out, I almost missed my chance to bring you back and I almost lost their trust. We need to tell them directly, we really shouldn't risk the damage."

"Then we'll tell them."

* * *

The twins were silent for the first few minutes of the ride to Gravity Falls, save for Waddles making Waddles-noises. Mabel hugged him close to ease her nerves.

"Are you okay, Mabel?"

"... I'm kinda scared."

Dipper laid his head on her shoulder. "I am too."

"I know he's gone, but the nightmares haven't stopped for either of us…"

"That's why we're going to see his statue. Let out everything we can and get some kind of closure. Whether he's listening or not, it should be good for us."

Mabel took a deep breath. "Yeah, I believe that."

"But hey!" Dipper excitedly bounced. "We don't have to do that right away! And when we do, we never have to see him again!"

He couldn't have been more wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Woo! Finished! I struggled a little bit with the first part of this one because I realized I had missed a key detail and had to take up a chunk of the chapter fixing it, haha. And I found a typo on the last chapter and felt the need to fix that. Sorry if that gave anyone an extra notification!

TW: Implied trauma

* * *

It was five thirty-seven, only an hour left before the twins arrived, when a realization had just hit Stanley.

They haven't told Soos, or Abuelita for that matter. After all, they still lived there.

He rushed to the vending machine, leaving a mildly confused Wendy and Soos in the gift shop. The two glanced at each other and shrugged.

Ford was in the broken down portal room, mumbling and writing furiously in his newest journal while Bill slept in the bag he had been carried in.

"... exhaus… perate… rough vel…"

"Ford!" He called as he entered.

"Stanley!" Ford dropped his journal in surprise, having been jolted out of his thoughts.

"Sixer..?" Bill gently rubbed at his eye.

"Ford, we never told _Soos_ about this one-eyed freak!"

This comment received a glare from said one-eyed freak, which was blatantly ignored.

"What? Oh! Oh, that's right!"

"How do you think we should do this?"

"You're gonna tell Question Mark?" Again, he was ignored.

"Soos is pretty laid back, right Stanley? I'm more worried about how we're gonna tell the kids."

"Shooting Star and Pinetree are coming?" By this point, their indirect attention was starting to grate on him.

"We haven't figured out how to tell them either…"

"You know, they aren't going to take well to having the same demon who tried to ruin the universe-"

"Uh, guys? I'm right here."

"-imprisoned and threatened to kill Mabel, possessed Dipper and made him fall down a flight of-"

"Stop TALKING about me like I'm not HERE!" The beast pleaded.

"-stairs and-"

"STOP THAT."

The brothers turned their heads. The demon had turned crimson in his irritation, but couldn't really do much besides yell and levitate. Maybe threaten to slap them with his tiny arms.

He was still exhausted. His outburst only gave him a rush of dizziness and blurred his vision. Unable to make eye contact with either, he rolled his eye. Unfortunately, that made the dizziness worse.

"You keep… ah, you keep talking about me right… right in fronnn…"

"Uh, are you supposed to be floating all… unstable-y like that?" Stan raised an eyebrow.

"... feel… sick…" He resentfully admitted.

"Stanley, you go tell Soos. Just wing it. I'll see what I can do to help Bill."

"Why are you being nice to him? Are you going soft?"

"We can't watch him if he's dead, now go tell Soos."

Grumbling, Stan complied.

Soos jumped when Stan almost violently pushed past the vending machine. "Are you alright, Mr. Pines?"

"Definitely not. Hallway, now. Wendy, you stay."

"Yes sir?" The two replied in slightly-off unison.

No less than a minute later, Ford ran through the ajar vending machine-door and into the kitchen. Sure, the twins acted weird on a regular basis, but something about their urgency stressed Wendy out more than usual.

"So what didja need, Mr. Pines?" Soos gave his usual optimistic smile.

"... you're not gonna like this." The older man warned.

"I'm sure we can handle whatever it is. Lay it on me, dude!"

"Alright…" He took a long, deep breath. "Okay! So, while we were in the ocean, we found a yellow rock or whatever. And then we got the letters saying that the kids could only come over if we were here. When we came back, everything was fine up until last night. My brother got some weird celestial task from some kind of space salamander and now Bill's being punished by being put under his care. He can't really do much but yell, float, and flail his tiny limbs. He might have some kind of health issue as well, so he's really not much of a threat."

There was a moment of awkward silence and uncomfortable eye contact. Even the air felt off. _Please just say something,_ Stanley silently begged.

"So… we have a pet demon?"

 _Huh. That went well._ "Yeah, somethin' like that."

"This is SO messed up! But I mean… we can, like… train him, right?"

"I dunno, Soos. He's not a dog."

"But he _is_ under Ford's control. Is it, like, a mind-control type thing? Even if he's weak, does he have to do everything he's told?" Soos was trying his best to maintain a positive attitude, but even he was a bit perturbed by the day's events.

"It doesn't look like he'll be doing much of anything for now. He nearly passed out just by yelling at us earlier."

"I guess we'll just have to see."

* * *

The twins grew steadily less anxious and more excited the closer they got to Gravity Falls. These little weirdos were absolutely _wired_! Wiggling in their seats, chatting and planning blissfully with more than their fair share of squeals mixed in. Several times during the trip, one or both had cried from their memories, good and bad, just as they had done all school year. They had too many hopes and fears to count. Were they ready? Hell no. Were they gonna let that stop them? Hell no.

After the twins' session of panic, Waddles had taken the time to explore the bus (much to the driver's concern). It smelled and looked like the same Speedy Beaver that he'd ridden to Piedmont with the kids. The seats had the same small scratches and pen marks as before, and then some. The cushioning on the seats was slightly less soft than before, but they wouldn't be on the bus for much longer.

The bus was surrounded by road and trees. Pines, oaks, and birch trees as far as the eye could see. The twins suddenly stopped their clamor when the sign for Gravity Falls zipped past them.

"We're..!"

"Almost at the stop..!"

The two quickly grabbed ahold of their luggage, painfully eager to just take in the world they'd left behind.

One minute passed.

Then another.

And then they were there. And just outside were the older twins, Wendy, and Soos, waiting for them.

The kids dropped their luggage as soon as they got off the bus and leapt into the arms of their Grunkles. Soos, Wendy, and Waddles joined the group to form a massive hug ship, and this ship was _rocking_!

Grunkle Stan was the first to break the hug ship, immediately noticing something different about the two. "Did you kids get taller? And Dipper, is that stubble..?"

"MY BRO-BRO'S GETTING A BEARD!" Mabel swung her fists into the air dramatically.

"Why yes, yes it is." Dipper proudly stated, puffing out his chest.

"How did you get Waddles on the- oh, that vest!" Stanford pointed at Waddles' red harness labelled "THERAPY PIG".

"Woah, dude! Does that mean Waddles has, like, a license?"

"Yep! He's… he's been a helpful therapy piggy."

The air was suddenly sour. The not-so-subtle drop in Mabel's tone had brought back memories of why they'd needed psychological help to begin with.

Weirdmageddon.

The older twins and Soos shifted uncomfortably. They were _not_ going to like this. Neither would have expected them to, and why would they?

Wendy was the first to break the silence. "Hey, Dipper? Do you wanna trade hats every summer? It could be a summer tradition!"

"Huh? Really?" Dipper gave her a wide grin. "Sure, haha!"

* * *

The silence in the portal room was deafening. The floor was nothing but dirt and metal covered in a layer of dust. Ford had left an electric lantern near the bag, but it wasn't enough to illuminate the whole room. And it was _cold_. Bill had to zip up the duffel bag most of the way through and wait for his own heat to fill the air inside just to make himself comfortable.

He hated every second of this so far. The now dull ache in his body, the panic attack, Ford digging him out, the unreasonably soft blanket he couldn't stop running his fingers over, the way Ford had to hold a damn cup _for him_ so he could drink, and those stupid animal crackers he had left with him.

He was sick with anger, shame, and fear. How long before Ford snaps and tries to kill him? How long before Stanley shatters him again? All of this because he had tried to save their dimension. _Nothing matters, everything is going to end at some point. They could've just joined me and had fun while this world lasted. But nooo, humans need STRUCTURE and RULES in order to function._

What was worse than the fear of the family's vengeance was the fact that he had no way to defend himself. Either he was too tired and weak to use his powers or they've been stripped from him entirely. It was just a matter of waiting it out.

He cringed as soon as he heard the familiar voices upstairs.

* * *

Wendy had split off from the group at the door of the Mystery Shack to head home. The younger twins had been barraging the older twins and Soos with stories for about an hour before their raw energy was finally starting to smooth over. And then Dipper piped up with one of the questions Stan and Ford were dreading.

"Hey, Grunkle Ford? Can we help you with your research again this year?"

Wait, what? "'We?' Mabel wants to join our research?"

Mabel responded very matter-of-factly. "It's safer when everyone knows what's going on so they know what to do. I may not be as good as you or Dipper when it comes to math and science, but I could probably do some good by at least picking up on some protective charms."

The Grunkles gave each other a look that made the kids nervous.

"... I think I can handle this, Stanley."

"Are you sure, Poindexter?"

"No."

Soos took this as an opportunity to quietly leave. He'd be back with stress ice cream for everyone.

The kids took each other's hands, Mabel stroking Waddles' head.

"You see, well… you may not want to join me for my current research. I'd let you if you truly think you can handle it-"

"We survived Weirdmageddon. We can handle anything. Really, we can." Dipper's voice was shaking, full of hurt, indignation, and the pain of that awful week.

"... that's why I'm worried. You went through Weirdmageddon, and that's why I'm worried. And we can't keep secrets from you without causing more harm than good, so," Stanford reached into his coat and pulled out the fourth and newest journal. "This is the best explanation I can give you."

As the kids slowly reached for the journal, Ford pulled back slightly. "Do me a favor, and absolutely _do not_ skip pages."

They nodded, and he handed them the journal. They could hear him murmuring apologies when he turned away.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ah! I keep finding one or more errors in the most recent chapter after I post it! Hopefully this doesn't become a regular thing. I actually had to cut this chapter off way earlier than I expected because the last scene ended up being WAY longer than I had expected.

Kenn! I'd LOVE to respond directly, but I can't without giving things away! But I can tell you one thing: everything I can think of will be addressed in some way.

Actually, that reminds me. I, uh, listed ideas for this story. There are 47 things in that list so far that I haven't even touched on yet. So. This story's gonna last. Haha.

TW: Trauma, preventing a panic attack, mention of malnourishment.

* * *

"Mabel, go ahead and take the journal upstairs. I'll grab our luggage. Don't start without me, okay?"

"No arguments here."

Waddles had already picked up on the twins' anxiety and followed Mabel closely. Dipper might be more prone to panic attacks, but Mabel was the one holding the Bad Red Thing that was making them both nervous.

The twins' room was almost the same way they had left it. The placement of the beds, the whack-a-mole machine, the desk, and the ship painting were all the same. With an eye for visual detail like Mabel's, it didn't take long for her to pick out the differences. The very first thing she noticed was that the window was covered by a baby blue curtain. _I guess they're trying really hard not to remind us about him. I'm going to miss waking up to a room full of sunlight, but Dipper gets uncomfortable just_ looking _at an upward-facing triangle. I'll leave that curtain alone. He'll open it if he wants to._

Her eyes wandered over to her bed and-

"Bedsheets!" She squealed, gently setting the journal down before leaping onto her bed. She had been tracing her fingers over the Cookie Cats on the sheets for only a few seconds when Dipper walked in with a couple of their luggage bags.

"Dipper, look! Bedsheets! Mine have kitties on them! Yours have stars!" She flung the flat sheet upwards and wrapped it around herself like a cape. Before Dipper could get more than confused Dipper noises out of his mouth, she darted out of the room and back downstairs.

"I LOVE THESE SHEEEEEEETS!"

Dipper smiled. Whether she was just doing her thing or trying to ease both of their tension by acting wild, he didn't care. He appreciated it.

As he set down the bags, he spotted the curtain. He stepped up to the desk below it, debating whether or not to pull it open. _It's just a triangle window. Not a demon at all. Not even close. He's dead, and he will never come back. And even if he did, why would he be a window?_

He was starting to feel nauseated. _C'mon, Dipper. Breathe. It's just a window._ He slowly inhaled for five seconds, held his breath for seven, and exhaled for eight. He hesitantly pulled the curtain open to reveal…

A normal, triangular window.

 _Stupid window._

Dipper suddenly picked up on a faint screaming that was getting louder each second. Mabel came bursting back into the room, two spoons in hand. "BRO! Soos got ice cream!"

"We can't hold off reading the journal, Mabel! Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan seemed pretty nervous about this, we can't let them wait too long and worry themselves to death."

"We won't! It's just for ice cream, and then we'll get right to reading the journal!"

"Well… okay. But like you said, right to the journal afterwards."

* * *

Bill had been able to shift the soft, red blanket around in the duffel bag in the most comfortable way possible and was now absentmindedly running his thumb along the hem. Without his power, he was stuck with observing things the way gross flesh-bags did. Being able to hear what he assumed to be Mabel's maniacal screaming without being able to _see_ what was happening got on his nerves.

The random moments of quiet didn't do anything to improve his mood. At any one of those moments, the younger twins could've been informed of his presence and lack of defense. And then what? _Shooting Star has already thrown kittens at me and sprayed me in the eye with paint. Her methods may be nearly randomized, but she could definitely hurt me in this state. But Pinetree? There was no telling with him. As nervous as I've previously observed him to be, he's highly intelligent. Pinetree and Sixer combined would be enough to weed out every little weakness I have, but Stanley and Shooting Star would be able to do the most damage. Moreso Stanley. At least Shooting Star had a sense of… mercy._

And then, it clicked.

* * *

After Dipper's one bowl of ice cream and Mabel's three, they finally settled down on Mabel's bed with the journal in front of them.

"Do you want me to read out loud so we're at the same place?"

"Sure, that makes sense. Are we really ready, Dipper?"

"Probably not. Welp, let's get reading."

Mabel opened the journal. The first few pages seemed to be torn out. All they could make out from the few shreds left were three large letters. "Wei."

"Grunkle Ford must not want to make us relive Weirdmageddon." Mabel said.

"I get that it was horrible, but we're not fragile…"

"Dipper, we have PTSD."

"Technically we're just diagnosed with a panic disorder..."

"Because we never told anyone about the nightmares. We never gave any reason behind our issues. We couldn't, or our parents would never let us come back. We aren't fragile, but we _are_ still healing. Everyone's doing their best to make the process as easy as possible."

Her brother sighed in response. "You're right, Mabel. I'm sorry. You're right. Let's actually read this, for the five-thousandth time."

On the first page, there was a small picture. It seemed to be a map with a red dot. Around the sides and below the picture was Ford's entry.

 _The kids are going to be taking off soon. I still wish Dipper had taken my offer, he's a brilliant kid with the heart of an adventurer._

Dipper couldn't help but wiggle and grin at the compliment.

 _I understand, however. Dipper and Mabel are very close, and I truly hope they stay that way. I can't speak for them, but things got steadily more awful as Stanley and I grew apart. Speaking of which, now is as good a time as any to make up with him. A new anomaly has appeared in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, and I want this to be the first of many places my brother and I explore together on the Stan O' War II. We can finally live our childhood dream!_

"This doesn't seem so bad so far. Pretty sweet, actually. Let's hope Grunkle Ford is just taking something a little too hard."

"I hope so too, Mabel. I mean, the only thing that could really put us off would be _him_. I guess there are ways he _could_ come back, but the chances of that seem pretty slim." Dipper gave a nervous laugh. Waddles sidled up between the twins and set his chin on Dipper's knee.

"I have a really bad feeling, Dipper."

"Me too."

"I really hope we're wrong."

"Me too. Let's just see."

The second page had a large sketch of some kind of sea monster. It looked like a giant squid with a slitted pupil. Mabel flinched. Upon closer inspection, the twins could see what looked like claws on each suction cup.

"... what…" The twins murmured in unison.

 _This is incredible! We've come across a rarely seen_ live _colossal squid! Aside from the size difference from the better known giant squid, you can tell it apart from others by it's hooked suction cups. Nightmarish, of course, but incredibly fascinating. Even more odd, it seemed to have only one eye and a differently shaped pupil._

 _WEAKNESS: AIM FOR THE EYE_

The twins turned to the next page. This one had several pictures. The first was some kind of whirlpool. The second was a broken down stone building surrounded by seaweed and fish. The third was something round and attached to a string. The last was the face of an amphibious creature that seemed to be smiling.

"Oh, it's a necklace!" Mabel shouted.

"Mmhm, it does look like some kind of rock or pendant."

 _This has turned out to be quite an interesting adventure! When we made it to the marker on my map indicating where the anomaly was, we initially found nothing. After ten minutes, we assumed it was below the surface. Stanley and I stayed up late planning on how to get down there. It was around midnight when a whirlpool suddenly formed below us and sucked the Stan O' War II down! We thought we were done for, but the anomaly must have formed some way of allowing us to breathe underwater… my best hypothesis is that the anomaly caused liquid oxygen to gather in that specific area. It was hellish and painful at first, but we could breathe down there. Once we had gathered our bearings, we spotted a small building made of a light, cream-colored stone. When we swam inside, we found a box placed beneath a portrait of what I can only assume was an axolotl. Stanley took hold of the box, and a flash of light surrounded us. We, along with the Stan O' War II and many fish we had previously seen in those ruins, were on the surface. The box must've been on top of some device that triggers the teleportation of everything in the immediate vicinity to the surface. Luckily, Stanley was still holding our newfound treasure. Giddy with adrenaline, we opened it._

 _Inside was just a smooth, yellow stone with a small hole in it. The marker on my anomaly detector disappeared. Stanley was disappointed, but this stone must have been important. I wouldn't be able to tell what the axolotl on the wall represented. Perhaps some kind of deity?_

 _I put a string through the hole in the stone._

"Well, isn't that mysterious."

"Pretty run-of-the-mill for the older Mystery Twins, huh sis? Haha."

The next page had a more detailed and full-bodied picture of an axolotl. Obviously, it was titled _The Axolotl._

"Oh, haha. It's all… cute and soft-looking. And vaguely familiar." Dipper gave his sister, whose face was full of adoration, a gentle nudge.

"Diiiiipperrr! It's not just cute! It's ULTRA CUTE!"

"Hahaha!"

"Aaah! I wanna squeeze his cute cheeks!" Mabel squealed as she cupped her own.

 _This has been… one hell of a day. Ultimately exhausting and terrifying._

"That's… odd. This entry seems pretty dark for such a cute picture." Dipper made the Pines family thinking pucker.

"Maybe the Axo… lot…"

"Axolotl."

"Yeah, that. Maybe it's just a super cute demon? Oh, what if it _is_ a dangerous demon and that's why Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan were worried! Or maybe, like we thought earlier, he's… involved with _him_ somehow."

"I… I guess we're going to… going to find out." The last suggestion was starting to make his stomach churn, and it was getting hard to breathe.

"Hey, Dipper. Five-seven-eight."

He followed the pattern. In for five, hold for seven, out for eight.

"Repeat after me. We are going to be fine. Five-seven-eight."

"... we are going to be fine." In for five, hold for seven, out for eight.

"If things get bad…"

"If things get bad…"

"We'll fight through it. Five-seven-eight."

"We'll fight through it." In for five, hold for seven, out for eight.

"Are you okay?" Mabel quietly asked, gently holding her brother's hand.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He lightly squeezed. "Thank you, Mabel."

"Do you want me to read on? We can pause whenever we need to."

"Sure. Thank you."

 _Just after we got the yellow stone, we received letters from the kids saying that they couldn't spend the summer in Gravity Falls again unless we were there. Of course we went. We may have been having fun all over the Arctic, but we missed the kids terribly. We had to make some living adjustments with Soos and his grandmother, but that was no issue. There are roughly twenty-two rooms in-_

The words _my house_ had been crossed out.

 _\- the Mystery Shack. We all still managed to have our own rooms, save for the kids sharing theirs. It was the night before the kids arrived that things got weird._

 _It started off with a dream. I was in some sort of… pastel pocket dimension with a couch and a giant axolotl. He tilted his head and said, "Welcome. Please, have a seat, Stanford Pines."_

 _I did as I was told, and asked who he was. "I am the Axolotl."_

" _Yes, clearly you're an axolotl."_

" _Not just any axolotl. The Axolotl. Unfortunately, you're here on business."_

" _Am I?"_

" _Yes. That stone you and your brother found. It's very important."_

" _Important how?"_

 _The Axolotl paused before speaking again. "You are not going to like this. Admittedly, my method for handling this was very flawed. You remember erasing Stanley Pines' memory to defeat Bill Cipher, correct?"_

"Oh no, oh damn, oh no, Mabel, Mabel we were right, we were right..!" Mabel wasn't surprised he used the one curse word their parents had allowed them to start using when they came back. This is what they both were fearing.

"Do you want me to stop? We can stop and take this on tomorrow."

"No… no, let's just get this over with. Holy Moses, I can't believe we were right."

" _Correct. I don't like where this is going."_

" _As his memory was being erased, Bill Cipher invoked my name so that he could return and absolve his crimes. He was supposed to return in a different form, but you just so happened to be several years too early. Again, my method for his punishment was flawed."_

" _He's coming BACK?!"_

" _I had set that keystone in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Whoever found it was supposed to be put in charge of Bill's punishment."_

" _No, no no no. Hell no. I am NOT bringing him back after all that he's done to my dimension, and especially not after what he's done to my family."_

" _I am sorry, Stanford Pines. You don't have a choice."_

" _And what happens if I don't bring him back?"_

" _The keystone will travel to his statue on its own. It's attracted to it. And then he will be left to his own devices. Would you rather let him run free, or keep an eye on him? No pun intended."_

 _I couldn't argue with that, so I accepted. And I feel, so, so sick. Stanley and I don't know how to tell the kids. We don't want to, but it'd be far less dangerous than hiding it from them. I know Dipper will want to join in on my research, but after Weirdmageddon…_

 _I hate this. Everything about this is awful._

Mabel turned the page. Immediately, they were drawn to a picture of a very tired-looking Bill Cipher. Dipper made a sound similar to a whine and looked away.

"Dipper..?"

"I'm fine. Keep reading."

 _When I got close enough to his statue, the keystone flew out of my hand and at him. It was absorbed on impact. He slowly turned back into flesh, it was almost like watching an ice cube melt._

 _He was so exhausted. At first, it was a little satisfying, watching this hubris-filled monster struggle to get out of the ground. But after a few seconds, my chest started to ache. He's an awful, despicable creature. He's done nothing but destroy and use everyone around him. Yet I can't help but be sympathetic. Stanley thinks I'm going soft. I believe him._

 _He was too tired to snap his fingers and started pushing and scratching at the grass around him. Eventually, he got too tired to move and started having a panic attack. I suppose being nigh omnipotent at one point and then suddenly having little to no power would have that effect. I pulled him out of it using one of the methods Mabel uses on Dipper. I had to dig him out and carry him in a bag. He'd passed out several times. I re-adjusted the Bill-proof barrier so that it would hold him inside the portal room._

 _By this point, I've learned that he's borderline powerless and subject to the same biological rules as most creatures. On that note, his behavior and random dizzy spells suggests that he's malnourished and dehydrated. I don't want to take care of him, but I'm not going to neglect a living creature._

Below the picture, there were several side notes.

 _Capable of exhaustion_

 _Desperate_

 _Possibly prone to panic attacks_

 _Feels like rough velvet (like a dice bag)_

 _Radiates more heat than a creature his size should_

Dipper had his fingers laced and pressed against his forehead. Mabel felt sick.

This couldn't be happening.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: MEEP MOOP BACK WITH SOME MORE DOWN TO EARTH I have found the full Gravity Falls OST and will now only listen to that when I'm writing this and oh snippity snap I fuckin love it

Kenn, my dude, my beta readers and I adore your "ramblings." And you have a tendency to point out specific things, which is very helpful feedback.

TW: Mild hypothermia

* * *

"I can't believe this, I can't believe this…"

"Dipper..?"

"No! It has to be a messed up joke! It has to be…"

"They wouldn't joke with us about this."

Dipper grabbed the journal and launched himself off the bed. He bolted out the door and downstairs. Mabel and Waddles quickly followed.

They found their Grunkles talking quietly in the living room. Neither knew what they were going to say when they ran in, but they knew when their Grunkles looked at them as though the two were going to shatter at any moment, it was true.

Bill was undeniably back, and under the very same roof as them.

No one moved. They only stared at each other in silence. Not even Waddles made a sound.

"The Axolotl-"

"Is an idiot." Stanley cut his brother off.

They all nodded in agreement.

Dipper let out a long sigh. "Where do we even go from here?"

"Let's, uh, let's not worry about this too hard tonight," Stan suggested. "You've been on a bus all day, you've only just taken all this in, and Ford's been caring for that psychopath all day."

Almost as if on cue, Bill could be faintly heard singing from inside the portal room. Ford walked out of the room. When he came back, the singing stopped.

"I… I forgot to shut the vending machine door. But yes, right now is not a good time to make any decisions. We're all tired."

"I third that notion," Mabel said quietly. "We need to really think about how this is going to work."

"... you sure that barrier's gonna hold?" Dipper stared at the gift shop's general direction.

"Oh yes! He tried to follow me out just a moment ago. The barrier reaches just two feet past the portal room's door. I… suppose I'll be sleeping in my lab, that way I can get to him quicker if he starts screeching in the middle of the night or something."

Soos walked in with a bowl of ice cream. "Woah, you dudes look like you've seen a Category 10 ghost or something."

"They know he's here, Soos. How about your grandma?" Stan wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush.

"She's probably a lot madder than she's letting on, but she said something along the lines of 'as long as he's not destroying the house.'"

The room was quiet again, but only for a few moments.

"I'm not sure I'll be sleeping well tonight. How about you, Mabel?"

"It'll be alright, Dipper. We'll get some more ice cream, I'll pull up some Bad Fanfiction Theater, and we'll listen to goofy stories until we fall asleep."

"The playlist we made, right? Without the horrifically gross ones?"

"Yep! We have WiFi here, right? Soos?"

"Sure thing, kiddo! Here, lemme write down the information…"

* * *

Bill played the situation over and over in his mind.

After Mabel screaming, it had gotten mostly quiet and stayed that way. He had started singing, and Ford came down "just to check on him and close the vending machine door." After he left, _it was still quiet_.

 _They_ have _to know by now. They're never this quiet unless they're upset or sleeping. What time is it? Eight? Nine? Damn this powerless form. I wouldn't even_ need _to know_ _the time if I was still in charge._

His thoughts shifted to the beginning of this awful day. Everything hurt and he couldn't see properly, but Gravity Falls seemed to be back to "normal." _Weirdmageddon must've been reversed when I died with Stan's memories… by default, that must mean I'm connected with The Rift. Or at least I was. It's likely that none of my friends were left behind. If even one of them were here, I would be able to get out of here easily and put Weirdmageddon back in motion…_

 _Why am I even trying to plan this out? I'm powerless, trapped, and surrounded by people who likely want me to suffer. All I can hope for is to gain the Pines' favor enough for them to treat me well. Shooting Star is overall the most persuasive and compassionate, but Sixer might not let Shooting Star near me. She might not even want to. If not her, I'll have no choice but to knuckle under Sixer._

He turned when he heard the door open, the red blanket he had draped around him swinging unnaturally.

"You seem to be a bit more stable."

"Stating the bleeding obvious, Sixer."

Stanford glared at him. "I'm going to bed soon. I'll be sleeping in the next room. Anything I can do for you before that?"

"... what the hell are you playing at, Poindexter? You could've taken any number of opportunities to hurt me by now, and you're _babying_ me."

"I would've thought you knew me better than that. _I'm not like you._ "

"You put a metal plate in your head to block me. You set up a barrier around the house last year. You tried to kill me _three times_ last year, and sacrificed your own brother's memory to get rid of me. Excuse the hell out of me for not expecting _this_."

Stanford felt a sharp pain in his chest. "You were a threat, the key word being 'were.' Now, again. Is there anything I can do to keep you stable?"

"... something other than those bland animal crackers."

"... a sandwich?"

"Sure."

* * *

The next morning, the twins woke up to their semi-illuminated room and the faint sound of fan fiction reviewers bantering.

"... mornin' Dipper…"

"... you sleep well..?"

"Mhmm, surprisingly…"

Stanley slowly opened the door. "You kids up?"

"Just about, yeah."

"You know that Northwest kid, Pacifica?" Grunkle Stan had a wide grin on his face, like he knew something that they didn't.

"Oh!" Mabel slipped out from under her covers. "Yeah, we've been keeping in touch!"

"She's joining us for breakfast. You should hurry down. I'm making eggs!"

Pacifica was sitting quietly while Soos and his grandmother sat at the other side of the table, discussing their plans for the next time Melody came over. With what was planned for the twins today, she could barely hold her composure. Sure, they'd probably figure out that something was up, but she wouldn't give them any hints.

The twins were still somewhat sleepy when they made it to the kitchen.

"This is an odd surprise." Dipper yawned.

"Not odder than you two! But seriously, I snuck out to see you guys."

"Aww, really?" Mabel let out a soft squeal. "You _missed_ us!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't make too big of a deal out of it. Anyways, wanna go out for a walk after breakfast?"

"Do you have somewhere in mind?"

"Not really." She couldn't help but smirk.

* * *

Half an hour after Pacifica had left with the twins and Soos, Ford still hadn't been seen up and about. Stanley assumed that his brother was still asleep and decided to go wake him up for breakfast.

Ford was snoring softly on an air mattress set up in the corner of the lab, across from the machine Stan had gotten his burn from.

"Hey, Poindexter."

"Mmuh..?"

"Your breakfast is getting cold."

"Right, breakfast…" He got up and stretched before suddenly snapping his eyes open. "Oh, Bill hasn't eaten!"

"A few more minutes without food isn't gonna kill 'im, Stanford." He rolled his eyes. "We can bring him some eggs or something after you eat."

"... e… gg..?" Bill's hushed voice could barely be heard a few yards away.

"Bill?" Ford called out. "Want some eggs?"

"... whassnegg..?" His speech was heavily slurred.

The twins walked into the portal room. "... Sixerrr, whas n egg..?" The triangular beast was sitting upright in the bag, shivering violently.

"The hell's wrong with him?" Stan commented.

"Tsscold… Six… er…" He tried to pull the red blanket back around him, but found it difficult to judge where the blanket even _was_.

"You were better last night. What happened?" Ford tugged the blanket around the demon.

He pawed at the air around Ford until he could grab his hand and pull it towards him. His fingers were shockingly frigid. "Warmmm..." His half-lidded eye closed and he lost his grip, falling unconscious.

"Okaaaay, this is getting weird…"

"Hypothermia." Stanford concluded.

"What?"

"He's confused, his speech is blending together, he's shivering, he lacks coordination, and he's cold. He has hypothermia."

* * *

Just a few minutes into their walk, the twins had started to question Pacifica and Soos.

"Is this a normal walk?"

"Are we gonna tame a dragon?"

"Are we getting a surprise party?"

"Are there going to be gremlins?"

"Are we having a gremlin party?!"

"We should _definitely_ host a gremlin party. A crazy hat gremlin party."

"Okay," Pacifica made an attempt to distract them from the obvious secret she and Soos (mostly her, Soos was having trouble containing his excitement) were trying to hide. "What exactly do you want to do all summer? Tell me everything."

Bingo! They were so busy chattering that they didn't notice the colors coming through the trees from the clearing the Mystery Fair would usually be.

Just a glance forward when they got past the trees and-

"SURPRISE!"

Streamers hung high in the trees around them, bunches of balloons were set up in random places, two tables were set up with various snacks. Scattered around the clearing was all of their friends. Hung high between two trees was a banner that said "WELCOME BACK, MYSTERY TWINS!" There was a separate banner below that one with more exclamation points.

"You guys!" Dipper trilled happily.

"You set this up just for us? Oh my gosh!" Mabel shouted in excitement.

"It was Wendy and Soos' idea. I just had to bring you here."

"C'mon, dude, you paid for the balloons." Soos gave Pacifica a nudge.

"Last time I checked, we all worked on this." Wendy said with a proud tone. "Now, who wants cake?!"

* * *

"We have to move him."

"What? No!" Stan scoffed.

A soft "noooo" came from the bag.

"See? Even the freak agrees with me!"

"He's delirious, Stanley. He won't survive another night down here without a heater."

"But the kids!"

"We'll tell them. It shouldn't be nearly as hard as it was letting them know he's here to begin with."

"I, ugh, I guess?" Stan sighed. "Where would we even put 'im?"

"... the parlor has a fireplace. Mind grabbing two more blankets? I'll carry him up there and reset the barrier again."

"... fine."

Stanford went to the edge of the room to grab one of the moonstones. He then gently lifted the bag, earning a small, plaintive cry from Bill.

"I hope that three-sided jerk getting sick doesn't become a regular thing."

* * *

Mabel had made it a point to hug _everyone_ at the party. Despite the fact that the party was technically for her and her brother, she was dead-set on making sure everyone was happy. McGucket seemed pretty satisfied with Soos telling him more about an anime he'd picked up recently. Lazy Susan, Sheriff Blubs, and Deputy Durland were having a very in-depth conversation about the buoyancy of pancakes. Wendy, Lee, Nate, and Tambry were cheering on Thompson while he was doing the "chubby bunny" challenge with chips instead of marshmallows. Robbie had called Dipper over, which was odd, but the look on Dipper's face told her that it was fine. That just left Grenda, Candy, and Pacifica.

She was about to make her way over to them when she heard a distinctly southern voice from behind her.

"Mabel?"

"Oh, uh, hey Gideon," she said with a mildly uncomfortable look on her face. "Wow, it's weird not seeing you in a suit. You're not still, uh-"

"Evil? Oh no, Sugarplu-... Mabel. I've been tryin' real hard to change my ways. True to my word!" He let out a small chuckle.

"... I guess that answers my second question. Look, Gideon, I'm still not interested."

"... I understand. But we can still hang out sometime, right?" He stared up at her with his big, blue eyes.

 _Puppy-dog eyes? Really?_ "... maybe when I've seen that you're not a bad person anymore."

"Well, I may have to try harder tomorrow. We may have ended last summer on a high note, but I kinda had to sneak in here to see ya."

She gave him a blank stare.

"I- I should go."

"You do that. But Gideon?"

"Yes my dear… friend?"

"I'm proud of you for trying."

He ran off with a wide grin on his face. She joined her friends, who immediately checked if she was okay and if he needed to be slapped.

"Was he bothering you?" Candy gently touched her shoulder.

"If he WAS, I could DEFINITELY break his face!"

"I'll let you know if I need you to break his face, Grenda."

"Why do you put up with that creep?" Pacifica crossed her arms. "It's like he doesn't know how to back off."

"I guess… I like to hope for the best for people. He said he was trying to change, and I just hope he actually does. This was a weird start, though."

"No kidding."

Barely half an hour later, Soos gathered the twins with a cellphone in his hand.

"Mr. Pines called, and I think he wants to talk to you two. Sounds pretty serious, dudes." He handed Dipper the phone.

"Hi, Grunkle Stan. What's up?"

" _We had to move Bill out of the portal room."_

"Wait, what?"

" _He got hypothermia last night, so we had to move 'im."_

"What in the- _how_?"

" _Stanford said it was a combination of that freak being extremely exhausted and the room getting colder overnight. We're keeping him in the parlor until we have some way to keep the portal room warm. We thought we'd warn you before you got back. It'll be several hours before he's… normal-ish. You kids should keep enjoying the party-"_

"You knew about the party?"

" _Of course we knew! But yeah, keep doing whatever shenanigans young teens do at parties. We'll see you when you get back."_

"I, uh, sure thing Grunkle Stan."

 _Click._

Now, how to relay the message to Mabel without causing a ruckus…

"So what was that about?"

"Well…" He contemplated the right words to pick. "So Grunkle Ford has this… creature he was experimenting with."

Mabel nodded with a knowing look. _Good._

"And this creature was very tired, so it was more susceptible to the cold. It got hypothermia, and our Grunkles moved it to the parlor to warm it up again. Okay?"

"A sick animal? I must GO!" Soos took off in the direction of the Mystery Shack.

"Soos! Wait!"

"I SHALL WARM THE ANIMAL WITH MY HILARIOUS JOKES!"

"Aaaand, there he goes."

"... so I was thinking, Dipper."

"About the, hem, creature?"

"Yeah… I think that we should help Grunkle Ford with the creature."

Dipper flinched.

"Dipper, we could teach the creature… tricks!"

 _Tricks… does she mean morals?_ "I'm not sure how well that'll work. We don't even know if it's capable of… of thinking… like that."

"We can try, and I think I know how. We'll talk about this more at the Shack. For now, we have a party to enjoy."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Welcome back! I feel like this one took longer than usual… I've been getting pretty busy, I'll be graduating high school in about a month, so chapters may slow down a bit until then. But! I got a copy of Journal 3, so I can stick just a little closer to canon! Well, aside from some stuff I've already planned to split from canon, hehe.

There is so much dialogue in my writing what the hell-

* * *

Stanley was running the gift shop when Soos burst through the shack door, startling several customers.

"Woah, Soos, weren't you with the kids?"

"I heard about the freezing animal!" This earned several confused stares and concerned mutters from customers.

"Freezing animal? What are you- OH. Oh. Oooohhh. Go, uh, go ask Ford about the… animal. He's hanging around the parlor." Stanley pointed out of the gift shop.

Soos had found him standing just outside the parlor door. Ford was initially confused with Soos' wording, but caught on when he had mentioned that Dipper was the one who started talking about a freezing animal.

"Oho, clever kid! Soos, he was talking about Bill."

"Wait, _Bill_ has hypothermia? Isn't he like, fire-aligned or something?"

A mildly-confused sounding wail came from the parlor.

"Fire and electricity, yes. I should check on him. You can come in if you want, he's even more harmless now."

The parlor was pleasantly warm. There was a small fire in the fireplace. About four feet away from the fireplace was a pallet on the floor, and a half-upright, very frightened triangle surrounded by partially folded blankets. Bill was clutching the hem of the red blanket tightly enough for his hands to shake.

"Lie back down. Now, what's wrong, Bill?" Ford sat beside him. He pulled out a pocket-sized voice recorder and turned it on.

"...thgirb tog rruf eht n ...hcnorc duol a ...suw rrehT" Ford stopped the recording.

Soos stared blankely. "... what language is that?"

"His. It's like ours, just backwards. He's not functioning well, and keeps switching between forward and backwards speech. I've taken to just recording what he says so that there's no chance I miss anything."

Ford pressed the reverse button. "Therr wus… a loud cronch… n the furr got bright…"

"So, the log shifted and it startled you?"

".kniht I ...seY"

Stanford went to readjust the log placement using the hooked iron poker on the hearth, so that the logs wouldn't shift so abruptly next time.

Bill squinted for a moment, as if thinking. "Sssssixerrrr?"

"What?"

"Mhungreh…" He avoided looking at either of them, as if embarrassed to admit his current needs.

Ford sighed.

Looking at him now, Soos could tell the old man was growing weary. "Um, Mr. Pines-"

"Please, call me Ford."

"Oh. Ford, I can like, make him some soup or somethin'. I'll feed him myself if you let me, you've been caring for him nonstop since yesterday. You need a break. Besides, you said he's like, totally harmless right now, dude." Soos smiled at him.

Stanford mulled it over quietly, doing the Pines family contemplative hand gesture. "I… I guess. But I'll be checking on you. He eats with his eye, don't think too hard about that. Feed him slowly so he doesn't choke. And make sure he's horizontal when he's not eating. And make sure he stays covered! He keeps kicking away the blankets that aren't the red one."

"Th'red one feels nnnice! Not th'othrss…" Bill angrily tried to push off the green and blue ones above the red.

"They aren't even _touching your skin_ , Bill! We've been over this!"

"Idun care."

He gently rubbed his temples and started muttering. "I just… you're so… ugh. Soos, thank you. He's really starting to grate on me. But please let me know when you want to switch out."

"Sure thing, Ford! But, uh, could you just stay long enough for me to make the soup?"

"That's fine by me."

* * *

The room was blurry, but warm. Bill felt oddly pleased but utterly clueless as to what was happening. All he knew was that he wasn't cold anymore, and the ultra-plush red blanket was covering him.

 _Hmm, tastes like sofffft…_

He heard the parlor door open and could vaguely make out the shape of a question mark.

"Hiiiiii Quest'n Mrk… were you jus here..?"

The shape of Ford said "Thank you, Soos. Again, let me know when you want to switch."

"You betcha!"

Blurry-Sixer left and Blurry-Question-Mark got closer.

"Hey there, demon buddy!" Bill couldn't pick up on the slight nervousness in his voice in his current state.

"Ahaha, hahaha… hiiiii…"

"Wow, you're really out of it, dude. Could you sit up for a bit? I made ya some soup!"

"Izzit Soos soup?"

"I guess you could say that..?"

After a few more senseless questions and Bill chanting "SOOS SOUP" for several minutes, Soos finally got Bill to sit up and let him feed him. Watching a triangle consume liquids through eyelids was one of the more unsettling things he'd seen.

The next few hours were uncomfortable, to say the least. Soos had finally gotten the demon to stop kicking off the other blankets by folding them into the red one so he couldn't see them. He had fallen asleep several times. His babblings and random giggle fits reminded Soos of an excited child. It was almost hard to believe that this was the same creature that had caused so much hurt up until the end of last summer.

He may be delirious, but it seemed like he just wanted to have fun. Surely there had to be some hope for him..?

By the fourth time he had woken up, Bill was less delirious. Though capable of processing his thoughts much easier, he was still confused.

"... hey, Question Mark. What happened to me? The last thing I remember is falling asleep inside a stupid bag downstairs."

"Oh man, you can't tell? You got hypothermia, dude. Froze up like an evil popsicle. You've been saying weird and nerdy stuff for like, hours."

"... and Sixer let _you_ watch me?" He scoffed.

"You were starting to get on his nerves, so he let me take over so he could have a break."

' _On his nerves?' He and Stanley KILLED me. He's lucky I can't bend reality anymore, or I'd replace his hands with squirrels. I should be glad, though. I know for a fact that Question Mark is far less likely to hurt me, much less kill me. I'm sure it'd be relatively easy to gain his favor. He's too nice for his own good. Pathetic._

"I heard that the twins are here. What are they gonna do? Get their revenge on poor ol' William?"

"Woah, your name is _William_?" Soos looked completely bewildered. Admittedly, Bill was _loving_ the attention.

"Yeah. Sorta. Technically my real name would make a human's face melt with absolute pain and pleasure. William 'Bill' Cipher is just a dimensional username."

"Can I call you Billiam?"

"No. Never." He said sternly.

"What about William Billiam?"

"That's awful, Question Mark. Just awful. 'Bill' is fine."

"Aww…"

"The children, tell me about the children." He gently demanded.

"Dipper and Mabel?" Soos tensed up, looking down at his hands. "They might not want to see you yet. They're still recovering, dude."

"Recovering? They _won._ What would they need to recover from?"

"... you're like, really oblivious about human psychology, aren't you? They're traumatized or something. They're still weird and goofy, but they're just not the same anymore." He explained.

 _Traumatized?_ The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. _They must… hate me far more than… I could have ever… they're going to kill me. They're going to kill me._

"Are you alright, dude?"

"I'm… going to die, aren't I? And I don't know if I get another life span…" He shuddered at all the different ways it could be done. If he was certain he could come back, he might've welcomed the chance to experience the different tactile sensations. But this…

"They're not like that! They probably fear you, hate you, and distrust you, but they're good, sweet kids!"

He couldn't think of a way to respond.

"They're not gonna hurt you, man. Probably."

"Yeah, that's _real_ comforting. I'm just gonna try to sleep."

* * *

The twins returned with their hair full of confetti and joined Ford in the living room.

"Well, you two look like you had fun!" He chuckled.

"You're not with Bill?" Dipper gave him a concerned look.

"Soos is watching him. Don't worry, I'm just taking a break. Bill's even more aggravating when even he can't process what he's saying." Stanford tried his best to reassure them.

"Actually, we should probably talk about what we're going to do with him. Mabel said she had an idea at the party, but that we'd all talk about it here."

"Mabel?"

"We should wait until Grunkle Stan and Soos are here first." Mabel said.

"What about waiting for me and Mr. Pines? The triangle dude fell asleep, I thought I'd come down once I heard you guys get back." Soos had poked his head through the doorway.

"I'll go get Stanley and we'll figure this out." Ford rushed out of the room, to the gift shop.

Stanley had to wait until a few customers left before joining the group in the living room.

"So what's your plan, sweetie? Ridicule? Shunning? Dipper's puberty voice?"

"Hey!"

Mabel shifted uncomfortably. "Well, what if we made him feel how we felt?"

"That's an interesting idea… but how would we do it?" Ford pondered.

"And is that even possible?" Dipper said with an uncertain tone.

"I was thinking that maybe I could set up a spell-"

"That could go haywire very easily." Stanford pointed out.

"Then I'll make it easy to undo! I don't really like this idea much either, but it's all I can come up with. But I thought maybe I could make a homebrew spell that could, in some way, make him experience the awful things he's made his victims feel?"

They stared at her. This was _very_ dark, especially for someone so bright and loving as her.

"Look, I know what you're thinking. Again, I don't like this idea. I honestly feel sick to the stomach thinking this way… but I don't think he's going to learn without seeing from our eyes." She was clearly tense. Waddles attempted to comfort her by nuzzling her shin.

"Learn?" Stanley huffed. "You want him to learn? He's supposed to be punished."

"Aren't punishments just lessons on how to behave?" Mabel said.

"Yeah, negative X action has negative Y result." Dipper pointed out.

Ford gently set a hand on Mabel's shoulder. "You sound like you've been thinking about this a lot, Mabel."

"I haven't stopped thinking since Weirdmageddon. Not once." Mabel confessed.

"Admittedly, no matter how much I hate him for all he's put us through, I've run a scenario like this through my head before. Probably as many times as Mabel has. We don't always discuss it, but sometimes we have to or the same scenario won't stop repeating in one of our heads. Although I really don't think he's capable of any good without an ulterior motive, I think that may be because he simply doesn't see things the way anyone else does. He's from a _completely different dimension_. He's _older than this one_. What would be the end of everything for us is just a walk in the park for him. So maybe, just maybe, something would click if he were put in our situation. I think it's worth a shot." Dipper explained.

"... what will you need?"

"I need a taglock, at least. I'll just take a picture of him. I'll figure out the rest tonight." With that, Mabel pulled out a baby blue polaroid camera and walked to the parlor.

Dipper stared after her, but only for a moment. "Grunkle Ford?"

"Yes?"

"I'd like to help, but I… I probably can't even look at him. Not yet. I have a hard time looking at regular triangles at the moment." He had begun absentmindedly tugging at the hem of his shirt.

"I understand, Dipper."

"B-but, maybe in a few days! I-I'll try and get over it as best as I can so I can help you!"

"Dipper, you don't have to push-"

"Mabel is here with me, and Waddles has helped me ease out of panic attacks when she wasn't around. I can help! I just need a few days to get used to seeing him, and I can just leave the room if it's too much for me! But please, Grunkle Ford, I _want_ to help you." Dipper looked up at him with big, brown, puppy dog eyes.

"Aww, Poindexter, you'll break the kid's heart!"

"Now now, I never said 'no.' As long as you know when you need to take a break, I would be happy to have your help, Dipper."

Dipper's face filled with relief and pride. He nearly knocked his great uncle over with the force of his hug. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, Grunkle Ford! You won't regret this!"

* * *

Mabel quietly opened the door to the parlor and tiptoed in. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the small figure covered in blankets on the floor. A powerful ache radiated from her chest and stomach.

 _Five-seven-eight. He's powerless._

Out of curiosity and the sudden need to challenge her anxiety, she set herself on her knees next to him to get a closer look.

On the surface, she couldn't have been able to tell that he was any different. Same shade of yellow, same bowtie, same hat, same prominent eyelashes. But the way he was clutching the red blanket made it look like he was distressed.

She took the picture, and the shutter sound was just enough to wake him.

"Shooting… Star?" He stared up at her, eye wide with fear. "Uh… confetti is a good look for you."

She glared at him.

"... where's your brother?"

"He doesn't want to see you." She stated, glowering at him.

"Oh…"

"You look tired."

"... I am, Shooting Star…"

She leaned just a little closer, and he flinched. "You're an awful creature."

At the risk of making her angry, he responded. "I did nothing wrong."

"You've made all of my friends and family here suffer."

"Did you think my friends weren't scared too? That I wasn't?"

She got up and turned away.

"We have a lot more in common than you think, Shooting Star."

With her voice full of hurt, she sighed. "... I could never hope for anything less. And for your sake, you'd better hope not either."

She walked out of the parlor without another word.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Holy shit guys, I'm sorry this took so long. I started the rough draft and then was IMMEDIATElY bombarded with various forms of tomfuckery and responsibility. But I'm back and I've got the ball rolling again! I went back and looked through the chapters to fix a few more typos, and I've even found a method to help me comb through more of them before I actually post, so… I'm rambling. Enjoy~

TW: Flashback/PTSD. I did actually go back and rewatched a scene repeatedly to keep it accurate.

* * *

Everyone had gathered into the younger twins' room after Mabel left the parlor. Dipper noticed that his sister's usual cheeriness was just a little bit more exaggerated than usual. He recognized this from how she'd started hiding Gravity Falls related stress during the school year. He decided he'd talk to her about it alone.

Instead, he focused on one of the questions he'd had since they'd found out about Bill. "Should we tell the others about him? Y'know, in case his current state is temporary and he tries to, I dunno, break the universe again?"

"Good idea, Dipper. The whole Zodiac needs to know in case the worst happens. I doubt he'd fall for the same switcharoo we did last time. He's insane, certainly, but not stupid." Ford paused, rubbing his chin. "But we need to plan this out. If we tell too many at once, or tell them in the wrong order, we could end up with an uproar. This may be his punishment, but we don't need a witch hunt. Or a demon hunt, so to speak."

"Oh, _come on_ , can't we humiliate him a little bit? Seriously, the freak's a megalomaniac. He'd _hate_ for everyone to know he's helpless."

"Sorry Grunkle Stan, I'm with Grunkle Ford on this." Mabel sheepishly looked to the floor.

"I'm with Mabel and Grunkle Ford, sorry."

"... Soos?" He gave his successor a hopeful look.

"... sorry Mr. Pines."

Stanley sighed. "I guess we'll go with whatever my nerdy brother says."

"I'm sorry, Stanley. I hate that he's here too, but one does not simply question an amphibious god."

"Yeah yeah, I know. You know me, I'm just being stubborn."

Dipper had written out a list of everyone in the Zodiac during this conversation. "Safe to say we can cross off everyone in the room. That leaves Wendy, Old Man McGucket, Pacifica, Gideon, and Robbie. Assuming Wendy hasn't already picked up on a few things."

"Oh, she was there while the older twins were running all over the Shack, dude. But I don't think anyone told her. I can tell her! She did, like, stay up WAY past 3 am listening to me when you first hopped through the portal, Ford."

Stanford gave him a confused look. "The day I got here?"

"Yeah, right after you told me not to. Whoops, haha. Didn't phase her one bit."

"She never lets important information like that slip." Dipper added. "We can trust her to keep quiet until everyone's up to speed."

"... I'll take your word for it. I should be the one to tell Fiddleford. He's always been a good, dear friend to me. It wouldn't do for me to repeat my past mistakes."

"I can tell Pacifica. We've kept in touch all school year. She may be kinda sassy and have a huge mean streak, but she's getting better and I trust her." Mabel smiled.

"That leaves the angry boy and the seemingly leucistic folksy child…" Ford leaned to look at Dipper's list.

"I think Wendy and I can tell Robbie once she knows. Robbie was… I dunno, friendly in an awkward way at the party. If he's trying to make up for how he treated me last year, maybe showing him a bit of trust will help somehow."

"Are you sure, Dipper? I mean, I gave him a chance and it ended up helping, but he was kind of awful to you."

"I'm sure. But just in case, that's why I need Wendy with me. If anything goes wrong, Wendy will set him straight."

Mabel and Soos nodded.

"Alright, so the moody kid falls to Wendy and Dipper. What about the freakshow?"

Mabel fidgeted with her hair, frowning. "That might have to be me. He's the one most likely to go all psycho, but he likes me."

"But like you said, most likely to go all psycho."

"Yeah, but he has done _some_ good before, and he says he's trying to be a better person. But the only one I can name who's been worse than him is Bill himself, that leaves a _lot_ of room to improve. But if it's not too much to ask, I want someone else around when I tell him. Just in case."

"I won't make you face him alone." Dipper gave her a gentle pat on the back.

"There's not a chance I'm going to let anything happen to you, sweetie." Stanley made the best comforting smile he could, if one could call it that.

"Actually, how about everyone here stays nearby when this conversation takes place?" Ford suggested.

"I'm all for it, dude."

"Thanks, guys. I know he's just a kid, but I appreciate it! Now for when..?"

"Oh, I'll call Wendy after this. Then Dipper and Wendy can tell Robbie when they hammer out the details."

"I'll wait to tell Fiddleford until the conversation naturally shifts to Weirdmageddon."

"I can tell Pacifica the next time I see her. But I think I should wait a while before telling Gideon until I can tell how much he's changed. We don't want him pulling a, well, _Gideon_ , and sneaking in to do who-knows-what."

"That's probably best. Now, for the spell, did you get the picture?" Ford asked.

When the topic changed, Soos left the room to call Wendy.

"Sure did." She flashed the photo of the sleeping demon, making sure to face it away from Dipper. "You'll help me plan what to use and how, right? You know more about this kind of stuff."

"Oh, absolutely!"

"You have to at least let me help _gather_ ingredients for this thing. I haven't really been doing much. Besides," A wide grin grew on Stan's face. "If this works, it'll hurt the little freak, and I want at least _some_ form of vengeance."

"Mood." Dipper blurted.

"It feels weird when you say it like that. I'm not actually _trying_ to hurt _anyone_ , I just want him to learn."

"Alright, alright. I'll tone it down."

"Guys?" Soos ducked back into the room. "Wendy's on her way over, she wants to see him for herself."

* * *

Wendy was hanging out high up in one of the trees surrounding the clearing where the party was held. She jolted when she felt her phone vibrate. Luckily, her legs were wrapped around the branch she was sitting on, so she didn't fall. She pulled her phone out, mentally preparing herself for a several hour conversation when she saw the caller ID.

"Hey Soos, how's it going?"

"..."

"Yeah, who doesn't remember?"

"..."

Her stomach churned. "Ahaahh, yeah, poor taste in humor, dude."

"..."

"... wait, you're serious?"

"..."

"Woah woah, okay, slow down and walk me through this while I make my way over there. I gotta see this."

* * *

Bill could faintly hear the family from the parlor. His hypothermia had fully cleared by this point, but he was still exhausted.

 _I can't catch a single break._

He flexed his fingers. Still stiff, but only due to his prolonged immobility.

 _Pain I'm happy with, but this is getting more and more ridiculous. Stupid flesh bags and their stupid limited energy and their stupid, stupid vulnerability!_

He let his mental rant go on for a few more minutes before refocusing on Mabel.

 _I may have screwed up when I tried to get her to sympathize with me. It's not like I can read them like before, I need to tread carefully. But that camera in her hand… she took a picture of me? Why would she take a picture of me? Surely not for her scrapbook… what the hell is she-_

A new voice was downstairs.

 _Ice Bag?_

He strained to listen, but all he could pick up on was her faked joking tone and the concerned ones of the residents. Slowly their voices got louder. Eventually he could pick out their individual footsteps and, finally, what they were actually saying.

"... want to go in there?" Dipper asked.

"Why not? I mean, he's basically a pet now, right?"

 _Oh, screw you, Ice Bag!_

"Funny, it seems like most of us have called him a pet at one point." Stanley laughed.

 _Just you wait, I'll SHOW you a pet! I'll wreck this whole room when I get the chance!_

The door opened, and in walked Wendy and Ford. He couldn't see everyone through the doorway, but he briefly caught a glimpse of Dipper when he flinched and ducked behind Soos.

Bill did his best to hide his amusement.

"Woah, dude," Wendy chuckled. "You look like crap."

He glared at her. "Wow, okay, rude. You guys seriously told Ice Bag?"

"Wait, Ice Bag? That's what you call me?"

"Um, _hello_ , you're the Ice Bag on the Zodiac."

"Do you have trouble with names, or do you just like trying to annoy people?"

"Oho, _definitely_ the latter." Bill was already irritated enough at the pet comments, and fading into a deep crimson. _Leave it to a bratty teenage human to run her mouth._

"You might wanna try harder. That was just awkward." She raised an eyebrow.

"At least I'm not a _pushover_." Bill was completely red by this point, hovering weakly.

"Woah, I'm just playing with you, dude."

"Let's not-" Ford's attempted intervention was cut off by his twin.

"And now you're trying too hard. Minus 50 freakshow points."

"Go to Hell, Stanley!"

"Bill-"

"We're already in Hell with you here!" Dipper poked his head out from behind Soos.

"THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, PINETREE!"

"Okaaaaay, that's enough of _this_ for today. C'mon, let's not feed the demon." Ford ushered everyone out and away from the parlor.

It took hearing Dipper's screams from the other room minutes later for Bill to realize he'd done the opposite of what he was planning. The dread of the consequences hit him like a tidal wave.

* * *

"Well, that got out of hand pretty quickly."

"No kidding." Ford pressed his hand against his forehead.

"Dipper?" Mabel's concerned voice pulled everyone's attention to her brother. He was chewing frantically on the neck of his t-shirt, eyes wide and unfocused.

"Dipper? Can you hear me?"

He could, but he couldn't respond. His vision was an unsettling blend of the Mystery Shack floor and the destruction of Weirdmageddon. The scene played in his head like it was yesterday.

"Oh, Dipper, no..."

 _The sky was red. Nonsensical occurrences scattered all of Gravity Falls. Directly in front of him was a pile of rubble, and past that, Bill. He was facing his lackeys, laughing maniacally at his golden ex-partner._

" _That's enough!" He screamed, running out from behind a pile of rubble._

"Dipper, it's me, Mabel."

" _Hand over my uncle, or else!" He pulled the journal out in front of him._

 _Bill stared at him with a look of amusement on his simple face. "Now isn't… this…"_

 _Please, no…_

" _INTERESTING?!" Bill's form very suddenly and violently filled the boy's eyes, his voice doubled with a guttural, almost thunderous intensity. His eye shone on him like a spotlight._

"Everyone's here, Dipper. You, me, Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan, Soos, Wendy, and Waddles."

" _My old puppet is back for an encore! Ya think YOU can stop me?! Go ahead, Pinetree," Bill lifted two fists, as if to prepare to hit him, still dangling his great uncle with a third arm. "Show me whatcha got!"_

Dipper could feel his hands, shoulders, and shin being touched, but still couldn't force himself to respond.

" _I, uh, I, uhh…" He frantically flipped through the pages, shining a blacklight on the pages._

"' _I, uh, I!' Do it, kid! Do some BRILLIANT thing that takes me down right now!"_

"We're in the Mystery Shack, Dipper."

" _Waddaya got, Pinetree?! Everyone's waiting!"_

"Weirdmageddon is over, we're safe."

" _DO IT!"_

Dipper let out a loud, aggravated scream before calling out the demon's name, and his vision snapped completely back into the Mystery Shack. Staring at him were the worried faces of his friends and family.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: It's been a hot second, huh? About five months? I'm sorry I haven't had any updates in a while. My mental health took a bit of a crash and I haven't been able to make myself work on it for too long at a time. I HAVE, however, started a timeline of this fic, and it goes way, way back… but you'll have to wait until later chapters to see what my co-writer/beta reader Bear and I have cooked up!

This chapter is mostly dialogue, and it's not nearly as long as my others, but I promise the next one will be longer! I'm also going to try not to drag every day for 5,000 chapters like I have been, heheh. Enjoy!

* * *

"I… I'm here. Hah… always was…" Dipper scratched the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed.

"Are you okay dude?" Wendy asked.

"You were like… super gone."

"I'm fine." He was bluffing, of course.

"Can you tell me what you saw, bro-bro?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "... when great uncle Ford first... turned to gold… I tried to fight Bill right… right then and there."

His phrasing struck Ford. Great uncle? Not Grunkle? He hadn't called him that since Ford had made it clear he found "Grunkle" endearing. What's more, this is the first he'd heard about Dipper's attempt. He didn't know whether to be proud or distraught. He caught eye contact with his brother, who had his arms crossed and his lips pursed, muttering curses about the demon.

"Do you know what made you see that again?"

"I think it… was the phra-phrasing he used. 'Then do some… something about it, Pinetree.'" Dipper leaned down to give Waddles some head pats.

Ford turned back to the parlor.

"You're going back in?"

"I'm going to try and make sure this doesn't happen again."

When Ford walked through the parlor door, what little furniture inside was slightly less organized and the blankets were left in a lump in the middle of the floor. Hovering next to the window was Bill, wide-eyed.

"Bill."

No response. Instead, his pupil flitted in different directions, trying to find an escape he knew damn well wouldn't show up.

"You were going to try and earn their pity, make this whole thing easier on you."

 _Caught._ "How did you-"

"It would've been the smartest thing for you to do, really. But you just couldn't keep your anger under control. It's going to get the best of you one day."

Silence.

"Say something, Bill."

"... I heard him scream," he murmured.

"I hope you know it's your fault he's like that."

"I get it. He hates me, and so does Shooting Star," he replied.

"It's more than that. They're _hurt_ , Bill. They've been like that since last year."

"... how?"

"What?"

"How are they still hurt? Like you said, it was last _year_."

Ford groaned and pressed his fingers against his eyebrows. "You really are clueless about the lasting effects of situations like Weirdmageddon."

"Sixer..?"

"But you only needed to know how to bend everyone to your will, didn't you? You've never had to face the consequences before."

As if the anxious itchy feeling he'd had the past few minutes wasn't enough, Bill suddenly felt as though he _hadn't_ been lying comfortably in front of a fire for hours. "... what are you going to do to me?"

"Be glad that everyone's against putting my brother in charge of you. We're going to stockpile on psychology research, and you're going to read through it. All of it."

Confused, he blurted, "Wait, that's it? I don't understand."

"Well it's not like you're _going_ to understand, not until you know what a flashback _is_."

"That's not what I- ugh, nevermind," he huffed. "A flashback is just revisiting memories, right?"

Ford gave him a grim look and explained, "In a sense, but that's not the entirety. A flashback isn't something that someone chooses to have, and the severity varies. It could range from a forced playback to genuinely believing that you're _in_ that place and time. I don't know how bad it gets for either of them, but the look on Dipper's face…" He set his jaw.

"I don't really get it."

"They both have a _disorder_ , and disorders just don't make sense to the people that don't experience one. It's in the name, Bill. I'll bring you some information soon, but for now, let's put it like this: it's a scar, but the kind of scar that even you could be subject to before becoming corporeal," he explained.

Something about that last line made the demon uncomfortable. "A scar of the mind?" he asked.

"You're finally catching on! Look, I have to go check on Dipper again. But Bill?"

"Yes?"

"If he doesn't go back on his offer to help with you, I expect you to apologize."

Everyone had moved to the living room halfway through this conversation. The color had finally returned to Dipper's face, and the twins were explaining their triggers when Ford walked in.

"-gets the worst of it."

"Mabel, the last time you had a flashback, you passed out because you couldn't breathe."

"First _and_ last. You've had three in the past _month_!"

"If you'd like," Ford interrupted, "I might be able to teach you both some new coping methods."

* * *

Bill began straightening what little was in the parlor, if only to keep himself occupied while he was stuck, once again, alone in his own thoughts.

 _A scar even I could be subject to, huh? That's bold. I've ruled the Nightmare Realm for over a trillion years. My name alone is vulgar._ Nothing _could scar a higher being like me._

But something about that notion still bothered him.

… _I guess that's not so true now. So why such a weak punishment? Why not make this as excruciating as possible? The waiting is driving me crazy!_

 _The waiting is… that's it! That has to be it! They're making me wait until I can't stand it anymore as a punishment!_

He was wrong. Well, half wrong.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: So I'm still alive. I'll make this note quick, or I'll be rambling forever. Life slapped me in the face, and that made it hard to focus on writing (or doing anything really). There's an update on this fic's tumblr (mentioned in Ch. 1) if you're interested. Also it took me until this chapter to realize it's "Poindexter" not "Pointdexter" I'm going to fix that in previous chapters and then crawl into a hole and stay there forever hhhh

* * *

The twins spent the rest of the day in the attic. No one could blame them, they'd all experienced some level of trauma and knew the effects were exhausting. Stanley had even offered to call his pug-smuggling partner to cheer them up, but they seemed pretty content in their room.

Ford was sitting in the parlor with Bill, with a pen and the fourth journal in his hands, writing down everything he could remember.

 _I'm surprised to say that, despite last year, the kids still want to help manage Bill. This is already proving to be painful for them, Dipper especially. I just hope this isn't more than we can handle._

 _As far as Bill himself goes, I'll have to make sure he stays warm. It might be easier to handle him overall when he has hypothermia, but he goes from being intentionally cryptic to almost completely nonsensical and irritating when he's unwell. I didn't think he could_ get _hypothermia. It makes me wonder if he's susceptible to viruses or bacteria. I won't be testing that, it might just kill him if he is._

 _As I expected, Bill was planning on winning over the twins' compassion (although he may have botched that with his last outburst). He may not have that, but he_ does _have their understanding in that he simply lacks our perspective. I hope Mabel's plan goes well, and that whatever Bill is planning to do to earn their trust backfires. He has his own biological makeup, but we'll be lucky if oxytocin works the same way with him as it does humans. Granted, it'd be awkward if he got attached, but maybe he won't plot to turn our hands into corn or some other cruel and unusual thing._

At some point in the evening, Stanford fell asleep in the parlor, his legs crossed and his back against a wall.

The sound of Mabel shrieking snapped Ford out of his sleep. Through his sleepy haze, he could see Bill hovering in front of him, journal in hand. He took the journal back with little resistance, making sure to check what page he was on before closing it. By the time he got to his feet, the screaming had died down.

Stan and Ford met halfway to the attic, Soos not far behind. Just in front of the door, they could hear what sounded like Dipper consoling her.

Mabel couldn't look them in the eyes when they came through the door. She couldn't even look at Waddles, for that matter. She could barely choke out an "I didn't mean to wake you," between sobs.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie," Stanley crooned and patted her head. "What happened?"

"It was just a nightmare."

"... I can get ya some warm milk if you want."

"It's okay, I can meow myself back to sleep."

" _It's important for us to support each other through this whole process. We'll need space from time to time, but when one of us, especially one of the kids, gets stuck in a loop, it might be better to stay close."_ His brother's words from earlier that night stuck in Stanley's mind. Mabel has Dipper, but he was fragile too. But before he could insist, Soos cut in.

"Y'know, I was thinking about hot chocolate earlier. Maybe we could all make some, make a fort in the living room, and watch some campy horror movies. It's the middle of the night, it's the _perfect_ horror movie atmosphere!"

 _Nice work, Soos!_ "That sounds like a wonderful idea. Stanley?"

"Sounds like a plan. Kids?"

Dipper put a hand on Mabel's shoulder. "It sounds like fun, right? A nice change from nightmares."

She muttered something that made Dipper cringe, something Stanford barely caught, gripped her knees, and took a long, deep breath. Then another. And another. "... yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

Her smile was obviously forced, but it was genuine by the time they were dragging sheets into the living room. Soos and the twins had taken to building the fort while Stan and Ford were in charge of Mission Hot Chocolate.

The two could hear them from the kitchen, mostly giggling and threats of destruction via pillow.

"Soos did a great job back there," Ford said while pulling several mugs from a cabinet.

"Yeah, he's always been pretty good at defusing tension like that."

"He reminds me of you in a way, but far more of a pacifist."

"He does, huh?" Stanley smiled towards the kitchen doorway. "I guess that makes sense. Kid's dad took off when he was little and never showed up again. I might be the closest thing to a dad he's got."

"Do you think of him as family?"

"Maybe. He makes me proud, that's for sure. But don't go telling him that. He'll latch on and never let go, heh."

"No worries."

When the two made it back into the living room, there was less of a fort and more of a pile of Cookie Cats and stars. All huddled together with their hot cocoa, it didn't take long for them to fall asleep to the sound of _Night of the Living Tomatoes_.

* * *

Bill was surprised that Ford hadn't come back to the parlor by sunrise, especially since he was caught snooping in his journal, even if he'd only reached the halfway through The Axolotl's entry.

 _It's not like he'll_ do _anything, but he could at least bring it up. He probably got busy comforting his distraught flesh bag. She could just meow herself to sleep the way she always does._

 _Or maybe she can't anymore, if what Question Mark said is true. That'd be a shame, Shooting Star was the only one who knew how to have fun._

He took a moment to scan the room for the five-hundredth time in the past 10 hours. Barren, minus a chair, Wax Stan's memorial, a stuffed boar's head, and Bill's blankets. Just horribly empty. Even the torn curtains and the leftover wax in the floorboards seemed to mock him.

 _From god to serf. Fantastic. And not a damn moonstone in sight so I can change it._

 _If I had just listened to my own visions… but now I don't even have that. I'm almost certain most of my effigies have been ruined, but if even one remains, I could scry through it. If I could just find a mirror-_

"Morning."

"Holy _Hell_ , Poindexter! Give me a heart attack while I'm here, why don'tcha?"

"You have a..? Nevermind that, I have a question."

"Information has a price, you know."

Stanford glared at him. _So much for that._ "C'mon, IQ, I'm kidding. Like I'm in a position to make deals in my favor."

"Funny, you're starting to sound more like yourself. While the kids…" He trailed off, trying to find his words. "You heard Mabel last night, too, yes?"

"How could I not?"

"Well maybe this'll give you a little bit of perspective. She's still a fun-loving and strange child, but she said something very… _interesting_ when offered comfort last night. And I'm not sure I'm glad I caught it. Now, Bill Cipher, I'll let you guess. Do you have any idea what she said?"

Bill's mind was blank, and the look on Stanford's face wasn't helping him think straight. Stanford looked like he was just about ready to throw his old partner out the window. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"... no."

"She said 'do I deserve that?' She had to be talked into hot chocolate and movies. You know, quality time with family, something she wholeheartedly _loves,_ Bill. And that brings me to my main question: how did you manage to get your claws on the Rift to begin with?"

The demon was floored. How was it that he linked a self-deprecating thought to- _oh right, EVERYONE hated Weirdmageddon. And I just happened to use Shooting Star as a catalyst._

There wasn't a way around this. If he didn't say anything, Mabel herself might have a breakdown trying to hide it, and then he'd be _screwed_ for lying.

So he broke it down. From the moment the barrier was made to the moment Mabel handed over the Rift.

Ford listened intently, not interrupting once. There was a quiet moment when he finished.

"So you mean to tell me," Ford began. "That if I hadn't offered Dipper an apprenticeship, Mabel wouldn't have stormed off, and you wouldn't have been able to use her hurt against her?"

"Don't flatter yourself. I would've found another way. She just happened to be at the right place at the right time."

"But I still had a part in it, and now she hates herself. My own great niece…"

"Again, I was the one who set the whole thing up."

"And you're lesser for it."

 _Lesser. Again with this holier-than-thou nonsense!_ "Alright IQ, enlighten me. What exactly was so horrible about the world I was building? It could've been great! _We_ could've been great! And it would've saved the Nightmare Realm from complete collapse! And I know, _I know_ you felt bad for them."

"Are you hearing yourself? The people stuck in the Nightmare Realm _hated_ you!" He shouted.

"Fine, they hated me. But why? I just-"

"Just what? Wanted to have fun? Wanted to save everyone from society? At what cost? This world isn't perfect, but it's a lot safer without a maniacal god ruling it, and we were certainly happier before Weirdmageddon, before _you_."

Bill could feel his insides begin to ache. _Is this..? Did that hurt? That can't be it…_

He couldn't stop himself from snapping back. "You used to adore me!"

"Used to."

With that, Ford turned and walked out.

"Sixer?! Hey, _get back here_! I'm not finished! STANFORD!"

* * *

Some time after breakfast, the twins decided to take a walk, each carrying a backpack with essentials like snacks, cameras, notebooks, and confetti poppers.

They walked down the path towards the town until they came to the bridge just outside. From there, they decided to follow the creek on towards the Gnome Forest.

A few minutes up the creek, they found something they hadn't noticed the previous year. Maybe ten feet from the creek was a flat, moss-covered stone between two pine trees. Above the rock, the branches curved and twisted around each other. Overall the scene looked like a natural doorway.

They looked at each other in interest before Mabel bolted towards it screaming "Pines' Gate!"

Dipper laughed and ran after her.

When they got closer, they noticed that there were two more pine trees surrounding the stone, also entwined above it, and that the slab of stone looked like a rounded triangle.

"Huh. Well if that isn't obvious and uncomfortable symbolism." Dipper said with a deadpan look on his face. "Mabel, you wanna get some pictures of this?"

"Yeah, this is kinda creepy." She took two pictures, one with a focus on the "doorway" and the other focusing on the stone. She paused for a moment, tapping her lip. "Hey, with four trees, doesn't it look more like a cage than a doorway?"

"... now that I think about it, yeah."

"Do you think we were meant to restrain his weirdness?"

"Well we _did_ fulfil a prophecy-"

"I meant after Weirdmageddon. Sure, the Axolotl might not have intended that, but it can't be a coincidence that we're the ones in charge of him now."

Dipper smirked at her. "Weird, you're starting to sound like me."

"Learning from last year!"

The two sat next to a tree of their own, diagonal from each other. For a moment, they were quiet. Dipper broke the silence with his own question.

"The Axolotl looks really familiar, doesn't he? Not just the look, but the overall _feel_ of his picture." He slowly waved his arms outward to emphasize.

"He does! I'd remember a face that round and cute! It feels hazy, though, like a…"

"... dream? Grunkle Ford did say he met him in a dream."

"... speaking of dreams, I think I know what _kind_ of spell I want to set up for Bill. But, um, Dipper?"

He gave her an expectant look. "You don't want to hurt him. I get it. If it goes haywire, I fully support cancelling it."

"Thank you."

* * *

Far off, hidden between the folds of several thousand dimensions lay Dimension 52. In the middle of those grassy plains was a giant doorway, and beyond that, a room of clouds. There lay The Axolotl, and beside him stood his assistant, Jheselbraum. In front of them was an old-fashioned television, playing out the events of Ford's dimension.

"They're handling this much better than I thought." The Axolotl's gentle voice quietly echoed in the clouds. "And he's not fighting it nearly as hard as expected."

"It's no wonder this one was marked for redemption. Do you think it's because he remembers his end of the deal?"

"Oh, he remembers, but that's not why."

Jheselbraum furrowed her seven brows before giving a knowing smile. " _Oh._ "

"And he doesn't even realize it."

"... do you think they're ready for the next step?"

"Let's wait for Mabel's spell to play out. Timing is everything. Besides, I want to see how the children are going to recover our last meeting. It'll help them piece everything together."

"Hah, you're just glad they remember you, even if it's just a little."

His gentle smile grew wider. "I am."

* * *

At some point during the day, Wendy took it upon herself to go searching for the twins. When she found them, Mabel was in the middle of an explanation.

"... and since we'll be burning everything, we can cancel it by throwing the ashes into the creek. That makes sense considering he's basically fire and lightning, right?"

"What are we burning?"

"Hi Wendy! Some plants, paper, and a taglock." Mabel got up and pulled the picture of the sleeping Bill out of her bag and showed it to her.

"... wow, this picture makes him look… kinda pathetic. Mind telling me what a taglock is?"

Mabel gasped dramatically. " _Witchcraft!_ A taglock is something you use to direct a spell at someone specific, like a full name, hair, something they own, or in this case, a picture!"

"When did you get so interested in witchcraft?"

"It started off as an inside joke from last year's Mystery Fair." Dipper cut in.

"And the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be a really useful craft out here. And you can do just about anything to include it, as long as there's intent behind it."

"The Sweater Witch of Gravity Falls. Nice, dude. What kind of spell are you planning?"

"We've got two in the works. One to remember dreams, and the other to try and make Bill have dreams from everyone's perspective during Weirdmageddon."

"But," Dipper cut in. "We're giving it a failsafe just in case it's too much for him."

Wendy took all of this in, not quite understanding why they didn't want vengeance. Until…

"... hey, this kinda reminds me of how you dealt with other monsters last year."

Dipper gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, he just had to be… _heavily_ disarmed first. With the amount of control he had last year, it would've been a miracle to see that possibility. And even now, he can still use our own heads against us if he chose to."

Thinking back to the night before, Wendy set a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't mean to get him so mad. You probably wouldn't have-"

"It's not your fault, Wendy. It wasn't the first flashback, and I doubt it'll be the last. I just need to work on how to manage them."

"Hey, uh, not to interrupt, but weren't you going to take Wendy to go fill Robbie in?"

" _Oh,_ I almost forgot! Let's go find Robbie, I'll catch you up on this whole plan we're building up on the way. You'll be fine on your own, right Mabel?"

She nodded and then ran towards the Mystery Shack, yodeling wildly.

Wendy called Robbie and the three made their way towards town.

* * *

Bill had been left to boil in his own anger. The longer he let himself stew, the more out of control his train of thought became.

 _I tried so hard. Why can't he see that? There's nothing wrong with me._

But there was. And in some way, he knew it.

 _He's wrong. There's nothing wrong with what I was doing. He could've been so happy in my world._

A softer voice reached him from far before that time.

 _.ecnasiun a hcus er'uoY .gnorw gniod er'uoy tahw yltcaxe wonk uoY_

"No…"

 _.gnihtyreve deniur uoY_

"No, no, not now… they can't see this…"

.retsnoM

"Stop!"

.nruB

"IF YOU WON'T STOP I'LL MAKE YOU STOP!"

Still shrieking, he reached for the curtain rod and tugged. When that didn't come loose, he gripped the already ruined curtains and ripped them off, mindlessly tossing them into the fireplace. He then knocked the stuffed moose head off the wall and kicked the lone chair over.

As he was reaching for an iron poker to swing around, he realized his mistake.

The curtains were halfway out of the fireplace, already lit, the fire spreading slowly. The blankets were just barely touching them.

By this point, the noise had drawn Ford and Mabel's attention.

"Bill, what are you- what did you- WHY IS THE PARLOR ON FIRE?"

"I'm sorry-"

"Mabel! Fire extinguisher! Down the hall!"

Bill could only watch as the red blanket lit, and Mabel handed Ford the extinguisher before the fire could do any serious damage.

After snuffing out the fire, Stanford tossed the extinguisher aside and turned to Bill, who had his face (or what could be called a face) hidden behind his hands.

"What happened? What the hell did you do?"

He slowly moved his hands, staring blankly at the floor. "I was… so angry," he began, looking up at Stanford. "It felt like my body was on fire."

Mabel and Ford gave each other a confused look.

"... how do you flesh bags control anything you do, when you feel like… _this_? Nothing I felt in the Nightmare Realm was like this."

And suddenly, his complete lack of understanding made sense.

"Have you never had your own body before?" Mabel asked.

He paused, squinting, and responded. "Yeah, a trillion years ago, give or take thirty years."

Ford crouched in front of him, a puzzled look on his face. "Were you not able to feel the same amount of emotion while possessing someone?"

"I… no, no it wasn't like this."

"So you must've been-"

"No," Bill cut him off, deep crimson again. "There was _nothing_ wrong with me."

The look on his face said he was there, and yet he wasn't. Not like Dipper's flashbacks, but there was something in his voice, something in his glare that Stanford felt.

 _Maybe he isn't such a demon after all. Or at least he wasn't._

"I won't push any further."

The wave of relief, and maybe a hint of appreciation, that fell on Bill's face confirmed it.


	9. An update

Hey there.

I'm not sure who all looks at this fic's tumblr, but on my last post one of the things I talked about was having personal issues with my co-author. Well, I've officially been cut off, and for good reason. I am not a good person. I'm working on it, but I'm not. Let's just say I see a lot of myself in the version of Bill that I'm writing. I am, however, in a much better place mentally than when I wrote that post.

I'm not sure for how long it'll be before they talk to me again, or if they ever will. But I'm not going to pressure them to talk to me when all we do is argue. That would be despicable.

I'm not going to quit on this story, though. I've put more love into this than most other projects, and it's one of very few things I can say that I'm genuinely proud of. But I will be changing the direction I was planning for this to go. Technically this won't change anything for y'all besides how long it takes to finish, as the major plot points that were collaborated on don't pop up until later.

To my followers/story followers, I'm sorry that this is what you see when you click on that email, but I promise you, it's not over yet.


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